The only crew member to survive Wednesday’s crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 remains conscious and stable, but is being closely monitored in an intensive care unit, the Taipei Medical University Hospital said yesterday.
Flight attendant Huang Ching-ya (黃敬雅), 27, was rushed to the hospital at 12:20pm on Wednesday, about 90 minutes after the plane carrying 53 passengers and five crew members crashed into the Keelung River in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港), killing at least 31 and injuring 17.
“Huang was severely injured, sustaining pulmonary contusions, rib fractures, internal bleeding caused by kidney lacerations and multiple contused wounds. Fortunately, her conditions have stabilized after emergency treatment,” the hospital said in a statement yesterday.
Screen grab from Lee Ming-wei’s Facebook account
It was not the first time Huang has cheated death.
She told her parents that she would have been on board TransAsia Airways Flight GE222 that crashed in Penghu during poor weather on July 23 last year, if she had not changed shifts with another colleague at the last minute.
Flight GE222 crashed just outside Magong Airport after aborting a prior landing attempt because of severe weather conditions caused by Typhoon Matmo. Of the 58 passengers and crew on board, 48 were killed.
After visiting her in hospital, Huang’s parents quoted her as saying: “I thought I would have died.”
A 15-month-old passenger, surnamed Lin (林), who is suffering from pneumonia and a fever, and remained in intensive care at Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxiao Branch as of press time yesterday, is also among the lucky few survivors.
Lin was traveling with his 34-year-old father, Lin Ming-wei (林明威), and mother, Chiang Yu-ying (江郁穎), both of whom were only mildly injured.
According to the boy’s uncle, Lin Ming-yi (林明毅), the family of three might not have escaped death if Lin Ming-wei had not requested to move his family toward the rear of the plane after boarding.
The decision allowed the trio to make it out of the plane without being blocked by obstacles, he said.
“My brother told me that after the crash he was held in his seat by his seat belt and was not thrown out of the plane. The minute he saw water flooding into the cabin, he immediately unfastened himself to save his wife and kid,” Lin Ming-yi told reporters.
Lin Ming-yi said that although by the time Lin Ming-wei found his son, he had already been submerged upside down in cold water for three minutes and his heart had stopped beating, he was able to resuscitate his boy by swiftly removing mud out of his mouth and administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
In addition to deceased 42-year-old pilot, Liao Chien-tsung (廖建宗), who was believed to have tried to steer the plane away from buildings to avoid further casualties, a 72-year-old passenger, named Huang Ching-shun (黃金順), has also received wide applause for reportedly helping four other passengers near him to unfasten their seat belts and escape.
In an interview with reporters yesterday, Hunag, who only sustained minor injuries, said he could tell how much Liao had tried to avoid crashing into buildings, before giving his best wishes to the people he tried to pull out of the plane.
Asked if he would avoid traveling by plane in future, Huang said: “Life and death are all predestined. I will still choose to travel by airplane, regardless of the airline.”
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